Temple Mount Sifting Project

The Temple Mount Sifting Project (TMSP; formerly known as the Temple Mount Salvage Operation) is an archaeological project begun in 2004 whose aim is the recovery and study of archaeological artifacts contained within debris which was removed from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem without proper archaeological care.

Students participating in the sifting, ca. 2005

The project has made heavy use of crowd-sourcing, utilizing many volunteers and tourists to help sift the debris.

Despite its historical importance, no archaeologist has ever been able to carry out a systematic excavation on the Temple Mount. This was the state of affairs, when in November 1999 approximately 9,000 tons of archaeologically-rich soil were removed from the Temple Mount by the Waqf, using heavy earth moving equipment and without a preceding salvage excavation or proper archaeological care, following works in and around the newly constructed underground el-Marwani Mosque.[1]

The debris was moved to several locations, with the lion's share (an estimated 350 truckloads) dumped in the Kidron Valley, near the north-eastern corner of the old city. These soil heaps were inspected and sampled by Israel Antiquities Authority officials, but no full-scale excavation ensued.[2]

In 2005, after experiencing financial difficulties, the administration of the site was handed over to the Ir David Foundation, with scientific oversight retained by Barkay and Zweig. Over the years, in addition to its scientific mission, the project took on an educational and touristic character as well, drawing hundreds of thousands of volunteers and tourists who briefly joined the sifting activity, supervised by staff members.

in April 2017, the Sifting Project withdrew from the Ir David Foundation and discontinued active sifting, focusing instead on laboratory research of artifacts already recovered.[3] The Sifting Project has held several Crowdfunding campaigns, and as of December 2018, has enough funds to keep afloat, but not enough to complete all research[4] nor to resume the sifting, which has continued sporadically.[5] and a public commitment by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to provide government backing for the Project,[6] has yet to bear fruit.[7] The Ir David Foundation retains the former sifting site of the project in Emek Tzurim and runs there an "Archaeological Experience", where visitors sift soil from various excavations in Jerusalem.

Unable to apply traditional excavation techniques to the disturbed soil, the project founders opted to sift the entirety of the soil retrieved from the dumping grounds. At the sifting site, the soil was dry-sifted and transferred into buckets, where it was left to soak. The remaining soil was then washed off over a wire mesh, and archaeological artifacts hand-picked from among remaining stones and modern refuse. This process was mostly undertaken by volunteers and tourists, under supervision of experienced staff. Objects retrieved from the wet-sifting process are then sorted and cataloged by on-site archaeologists, and transferred to an archaeological laboratory, to be further studied by specialists who prepare the finds for publication. Much like an archaeological survey, the types of finds are categorized, counted and compared to different types both within the site and in nearby sites.[8]

Prior to the onset of the TMSP, the wet-sifting technique, in which significant portions of the site's soil (as opposed to selected loci) are water-screened, was used by local archaeologists only in some Prehistoric sites. This led to a problem in comparing finds from the Temple Mount to other sites. For example, while comparison to other Iron AgeJudahite sites showed a similar distribution of different types of figurines (human, animal, etc.),[9] the percentage of fragments was incomparable - more leg fragments were recovered by the TMSP than all other sites combined, and horn\ear fragments were reported solely by the TMSP.[10] This is not to say that such fragment did not exist in other sites, but rather, that their small size caused them to remain unnoticed by archaeologists excavating in traditional methods.

To overcome this sampling bias, samples were taken from various excavation sites in Jerusalem and subjected to wet-sifting in order to act as a control group.[11] In the ensuing years, multiple excavation projects in Jerusalem and its environs have adopted the wet-sifting technique,[12] some of them outsourcing the sifting work to the TMSP.[13] The rising popularity of the wet-sifting technique has correlated to a notable rise in the number of seal and seal impressions discovered in excavations carried out in Jerusalem.[14]

In January 2013, the project announced the development of a statistical method using cluster analysis to partially reconstruct the original context of some of the finds.[15] Later that year, it was announced that enough artifacts had been collected to serve as a representative sample, and common finds collected from that point forward will not be included in the final publication.[16]

The later Iron Age is well represented in the finds: About 130 typical Judahite figurine fragments have been recovered from the Temple Mount soil, and another 30 from an ancient garbage dump in the Eastern Slopes of the Temple Mount.[25] Other finds include Judean stone weights, weaponry—including a rare arrowhead of the Scytho-Iranian type—introduced to Jerusalem by the forces of Nebuchadnezzar II, and inscription bearing artifacts, including a LMLK seal, dozens of ostraca and several seals and sealing (bullae), the most prominent among them being the Immer Bulla, a broken sealing, paleographically dated to the 7th–6th century BC and bearing the incomplete given name[...]lyahu and the patronymImmer, the name of a well known Biblical priestly family, whose one member is recorded as a major office holder in the Temple.[26] The sealing, which bears on its back fiber impressions, was affixed to a cloth sack, pouch, or lid, possibly relating to the Temple treasury.[27]

Within the Temple Mount's history, no other period saw as much activity as the Second Temple Period – both in terms of construction projects carried out, chiefly that of Herod's Temple, and in volume of people going about their day-to-day activity. This is well attested in the pottery finds of the TMSP, over 40% of which date to this period (⅔ of that dating between Herod's reign (37 BCE) and the destruction of the Temple (70 CE)).

A number of architectural remains are ascribed to this period, the largest among them being a 75 cm wide Doriccapital, which may have topped an 18 foot tall column within Solomon's Porch.[28] Another noted architectural discovery consisted of dozens of multi-colored Opus sectile tiles of various shapes, which enabled a reconstruction of the tiling patterns employed in the courtyards of Herod's Temple.[29]

A full third of all the coins found date to this period, along with large amounts of pottery. A relatively surprising phenomena was the discovery of a large number of luxurious architectural artifacts from the period – including Opus sectile tiles, roof tiles, Corinthian capitals, chancel screens and a multitude of mosaictesserae – which led researchers to question the historical sources that depict the Temple Mount as abandoned at the time. Additional finds include cruciform pendants, clay oil lamps emblazoned with crosses and bronze weights.

Approximately one in four pottery fragments recovered by the TMSP date to this period, mostly consisting of Ummayadtableware and storage vessels, and Abbasid tableware, storage and cooking vessels.

Other finds include many architectural elements connected to the construction of the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the most prominent being thousands of colored and gilded mosaic tesserae belonging to wall mosaics, most likely the mosaics akin to those adorning the inner walls of the dome of the rock, which adorned the outer walls till their replacement by glazed tiles in the 16th century.[31]

During this period, the use of the sub-floor structure of the Temple Mount as a stables by the Knights Templar gave Solomon's Stables its current name. This is reflected in finds such as hundreds of armor scales, horseshoe nails, and arrowheads. Over a hundred silver Crusader coins make up the biggest and most varied collection of such coins from Jerusalem.[32]Opus Sectile tiles from this era match up exactly to patterns seen under the Dome of the Rock's carpeting,[33] as well as the churches of the Holy Sepulchre and of St. John the Baptist.[34]

The Mamluk period is represented mainly by pottery, coins, gaming pieces, jewelry and some architectural elements.

A large variety of finds date to the Ottoman Period, including finds related to renovation projects undergone during this era, such as glazed tiles which have coated the outer walls of the Dome of the Rock since the 16th century, and fragments of colorful stained glass windows.